Normally when a patient is admitted to a hospital, he is tagged with a wristband which includes his name and may further include an identifying number. This band will remain on the patient's wrist until he is discharged from the hospital and serves as a positive identifying means during the patient's stay so that hospital personnel subsequently coming in contact with the patient can properly identify the patient.
Where one or more patients have the same names, it is possible that orders to be carried out on one patient may mistakenly be carried out on another with the same name, even though code numbers in addition to names are often used. Even if there is no ambiguity in the names or numbers, the names or numbers themselves can become obliterated or partially obliterated thus again resulting in possible mistakes.
The problem of partially or completing obliterated numbers can be solved by actually perforating the numbers in an appropriate identification card or in the band itself but symbols or numbers defined by a series of perforations are often difficult to read.